DALLAS, Dec 4, 2008 / FW/ — For George W. Bush’s final Christmas Card while he is in the Oval Office, the White House has selected an exclusive design of a view from the Truman Balcony of the White House that Hallmark Cards, Inc. had been commissioned to produce.
The First Lady chose Maine artist T. Allen Lawson to create the original artwork. Lawson’s painting is reproduced on the card, made with recycled paper, as a tip-on on elegant stock with a debossed edge. An embossed gold foil presidential seal highlights the insert page.
President and Mrs. Bush selected the following Bible verse from Matthew and brief message to be incorporated on the card:
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16
May your heart and home be filled with the joys of the holiday season.
Work began on the holiday card in July when a team from Hallmark began collaborating with Mrs. Bush’s office. This will be the 8th year in a row that the White House had chosen Hallmark. In fact, the whole time President George W. Bush was in office, Hallmark had been their choice.
Hallmark began making Christmas cards for presidents in 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the first White House Christmas card and started what has become a White House tradition.
The company has created at least one card for each administration with exception of the Clinton Administration. The 2008 card is the 41st official card created by Hallmark for the White House.
In 1982, Hallmark donated its Presidential Christmas Card Collection to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The Hallmark Visitors Center adjacent to the Kansas City headquarters of Hallmark Cards, Inc., also displays the Presidential Christmas Card Collection.
Web site: www.hallmark.com
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